Focus / depth of field etc when self shooting with intervals

Hi

I tried self shooting the otherday, you know, in a park with a tripod, taking time to try things. So I set the D7000 to wait 20sec before taking the first shot, then take 9 pics in a row with 2sec interval in between each. Simple.

I tried this in P mode. Sorry I'm a total beginner, this may be ridiculous in itself I don't know.

I'm assuming that setting autofocus mode in Continuous mode is enough to expect the camera to refocus if I change position, ie I as a subject move either further back, or closer to the lens. But what about depth of field etc. Does it get readjust in real time whist I move. It seems that most of my pics taken in P mode with timer interval features were blurred somehow...

Thank you!

Maybe you should have used manual focus with a small enough aperture to get the area you wanted in focus. I'm not sure how the autofocus works in the interval mode... Something to learn for me. Means I shouldn't die today.

Yeah, the problem as you may guess is that I'd like to still get those blurry background and all. If I set the camera in Automode, it will do what you mention anyway, ie trying to focus using the smallest aperture so that it can render clear subject with clear background.

The best I could do so far is to set it in P mode, then get it to focus using my hand placed at a certain distance from the lense, then press the shutter button half way (hearing the sound that the lense does when focusing as I can not look through the view finder), then press the shutter button completely which triggers the timer, then place myself as a subject at the location where my hand was.

But as soon as I move forward or backward, it's possible that the AF-C mode works, I don't know, but it seems that the P-Mode can not readjust it's aperture/shutter speed combination in real time. That would explain that most picture show a blurry subject.

Therefore I need to know if there's a few parameters that when combined together, allows for self shooting using interval whilst expecting the P-Mode to modify it's value along with the Auto-focus so that I as a subject, can freely move forward and backward whilst staying in focus. I'm sure it's possible, with so many parameters to configure.

Thinking about it. The same question applies to single shot done using the timer function. Can you use it in P mode? Can you expect to hit the button without having focused first, then walking freely to where you want to pose then expect the camera to 1) focus appropriately and 2) Aperture / shutter speed to adjust, following you wherever you may stand still?